The Supreme Court has rejected a fresh attempt by two men convicted of involvement in the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe to win their freedom.
Michael D O’Neill, convicted of manslaughter, and John Quinn, convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery, are serving sentences of 11 years and six years respectively.
The Supreme Court had rejected their appeal last January. They had claimed they should be released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Today their lawyer, Dr Michael Forde, argued that the Supreme Court should set aside its earlier judgement and re-hear the prisoners' appeals because he claimed the judgement was based on an error of fact.
Contrary to the Supreme Court judgement, he said other prisoners who were convicted following the signing of the agreement in April 1998 had been released.
However, his argument was rejected, with the Chief Justice saying the case was not even remotely within the category of exceptional circumstances where an applicant would be entitled to invoke the exceptional jurisdiction to re-open his case.
